Murtaza’s father, Mohammad Arif Ahmadi, said in May that the family was forced to leave Afghanistan amid constant telephone threats and fears that Murtaza would be kidnapped because of his sudden notoriety.

“Life became a misery for us,” said the father at the time, speaking from the Pakistani city of Quetta, where the family had settled.

The meeting between Messi and Murtaza comes at a time when Qatar is introducing long-expected reforms to policies governing its vast foreign-labour force, who labour and human rights activists say are open to abuse by the current system.